An inquest has heard that a mum was suffering from severe post-natal depression in the months and weeks before her suspected suicide.

Emma Cadywould, 32, who had a six-month-old son, Harrison, was hit by a 105mph train near South Marston, Wiltshire on December 16, 2011.

Her family told the court that Emma had been a meticulous and organised individual before her illness.

The Swindon Advertiser reports that Emma had enjoyed her 'routine' before having her son, and was dedicated to her job as a researcher at the University of Bristol, and enjoyed visiting the gym most evenings.

Her widower, Major Stephen Cadywould, who had been taking military commander exams in the days before Emma's death, told the hearing that their son did not sleep and was regularly waking up to 30 times a night. He said on some nights the couple slept in 20-minute bursts, and the effect of broken sleep stopped a bond forming between Emma and her son.

The mum eventually grew so stressed that her hair began falling out and her GP, Dr Okbuagu, called in the Swindon Intensive Crisis Team to help her with her depression.

Dr Okbuagu told the court that he had 'never seen anyone as ill as Emma, suffering from post-natal depression'.

Her husband took over all Harrison's night-time feeds from September, 2011, as Emma became more and more distressed through lack of sleep. Unbeknown to him, she had told her parents and medical staff that she had experienced suicidal thoughts.

She told her GP that she had once considered driving off a bridge on her way back from Bristol with her son in the car, and that she only didn't because the car was new.

Dr Okbuagu told the inquest that Emma had not bonded with her son, and that she connected the hair loss she had suffered directly with her pregnancy and labour.

Emma's mum, Janet Holland said her daughter started having 'daily' conversations about her 'not being here'. She also told the court that Emma had had a traumatic birthing experience, with only paracetamol for pain relief.

Speaking about the Friday morning before she died, her husband Stephen said he saw nothing in her behaviour to suggest she would later find her way to the railway line. They had breakfast together, discussed normal domestic issues, and that Emma had dressed Harrison and driven him to nursery.

Emma was later killed by a train at a junction near Swindon, Wiltshire.